I am thinking about running The Olde Island Fortress and it will be my first Game Master experience ever.
My group of friends and I have been playing D&D 4e for almost 8 years and recently 5e in a couple sessions.
I immediately realized how different the game is from BFRPG and I was somehow shocked by its "old school atmosphere".
Reading through The Olde Island Fortress I was surprised by how easily a character could die just entering the dungeon, particularly by the pit traps e and the poison of the monsters relatively close to the entrance.

My question is: is there a reasonable way to change poison in order to not kill immediately a PC but at the same time keeping it dangerous?
I thought about something like:
If you get hit, you have -1 to attack rolls, damage rolls, saving throws and some minor speed limitations like -5 feet.
At the same time you make a Poison saving throw (without penalty).
If you success, the penalties will end after a long rest.
If you fail, you have to save again (now with penalty) vs Poison during a long rest or die while sleeping.

The idea is basically giving the players two saves but at the same time making poison affect the players as "punishment".
Do you think it is reasonable? Is it better? Is it worse? What would you suggest?

If using a kind of "punishment" system I would go with:
If you are poisoned (failed the ST) you get a set penalties, after a set time has passed you roll again your ST, if you fail yo get a "poison+" status and your penalties worsens, then, after time you repeat the ST roll, failure means death/coma

As an option, a successful ST reduces the poison by one step, but don't remove the poison from the pc's system, after 3 successful rolls the character beats the poison out of his system.

For the amount of time I would go with either a CON based value, an HD+Con mod roll or a HP based value.

I like that, but what about getting hit more than once by poison attacks?
The PC would have more and more poison in his body.
A ST for each attack that does nothing if saved but worsens the condition if failed?
Or the PC automatically gains a poison level on a hit?

Poison causes damage instead of instant death.
Poison damage is *d6 per round for 1d6 rounds (* = number of hit dice divided by 2 rounded down with a minimum of 1d6). A successful Save vs Poison (If allowed, apply Con modifier to the roll as mentioned in the core rules) reduces the damage by half with the minimum of 1 point of damage no matter what.
Example: A 4 hd monster that has a poison attack would have poison damage of 2d6. A 2hd or less monster's poison attack would be 1d6.

What this does is allows you to apply any other house rules that might be used or applied to damage results such as being bloodied (under X amount of HP) or even apply modifiers like mentioned above for the duration of the poison.

Knights of the Written Word 2 is a friendly Roll20 community created for those that prefer written text games or have difficulty with voice games (for physical, mental, emotional, or technical reasons).

Poison causes damage instead of instant death.
Poison damage is *d6 per round for 1d6 rounds (* = number of hit dice divided by 2 rounded down with a minimum of 1d6). A successful Save vs Poison (If allowed, apply Con modifier to the roll as mentioned in the core rules) reduces the damage by half with the minimum of 1 point of damage no matter what.
Example: A 4 hd monster that has a poison attack would have poison damage of 2d6. A 2hd or less monster's poison attack would be 1d6.

What this does is allows you to apply any other house rules that might be used or applied to damage results such as being bloodied (under X amount of HP) or even apply modifiers like mentioned above for the duration of the poison.

If a Giant Bee hits you, for example, how much damage do you take? And when?
Do you take 1d4 and automatically start getting poison damage without the chance to not get it at all?
Does the poison damage start in the same round of the attack?
Do you roll every round or just once and deal that much damage every round?
And what about getting hit multiple times by poison attacks?

If a Giant Bee hits you, for example, how much damage do you take? And when?
Do you take 1d4 and automatically start getting poison damage without the chance to not get it at all?
Does the poison damage start in the same round of the attack?
Do you roll every round or just once and deal that much damage every round?
And what about getting hit multiple times by poison attacks?

I stated minimum of 1d6. In my games, as this is a house rule, if the monster has the poison ability and you get attacked with that ability (aka a poisoned bite or sting) you must make a save or take damage. If you save then you take half damage. If you don't then you take the full amount rolled.

I roll once and apply the damage each round after the attack aka end of round damage.

If you get hit then you have multiple saves to make. Let me ask you this, if your character gets hit multiple times does it take multiple amounts of damage from the weapons? This is the same for poison in my opinion.

Venomous monsters are to be feared in my game but remember this is just my house rule for my games. Use and adjust as you wish.

Knights of the Written Word 2 is a friendly Roll20 community created for those that prefer written text games or have difficulty with voice games (for physical, mental, emotional, or technical reasons).

Poison causes damage instead of instant death.
Poison damage is *d6 per round for 1d6 rounds (* = number of hit dice divided by 2 rounded down with a minimum of 1d6). A successful Save vs Poison (If allowed, apply Con modifier to the roll as mentioned in the core rules) reduces the damage by half with the minimum of 1 point of damage no matter what.
Example: A 4 hd monster that has a poison attack would have poison damage of 2d6. A 2hd or less monster's poison attack would be 1d6.

What this does is allows you to apply any other house rules that might be used or applied to damage results such as being bloodied (under X amount of HP) or even apply modifiers like mentioned above for the duration of the poison.

I like this a lot. May steal and adjust it a little for my next game. Thank you!

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